[Updated] Experience using Tamiya acrylic paints

Posted in Custom Workstation

After reading around and painting with 2 Tamiya colors today, here are some results.

I'm using:
-Synthetic brushes
-70% Alcohol as thinner
-Flat Black and normal White (acrylics)
-Painting on bare Apoxie Sculpt that's been lightly sanded (no primer)

•Don't shake the paints or you may get a bunch of bubbles, stir them before use. I used a pipette to stir them since I use it to take out a few drops of paint anyway.

•These paints are on the thin side, some look airbrush ready though I still see people suggest you do at least a 50/50 mix of paint to thinner.

•Most people suggest you use them with an airbrush because brushing them on can be tough. I have to agree to some degree, I don't recommend these for beginners. They dry a little faster than acrylics, so you have to already be comfortable with painting in order to find a workflow that works for you. I started off using my usual brushing technique, but using alcohol instead of water to keep the brush a little damp. This was working okay, but eventually I went from a brushing motion to more of a spreading/floating motion. I could feel the paint wanting to tear up with my usual brushing motion, so I had to switch to the ginger touch. Ultimately I got a nice smooth finish on the first coats, now waiting to apply more.

•The bottles say to wait an hour before applying another coat, or else you risk tearing up the previous coat. I think you can fudge it and just wait like 15-20 minutes if you have a light touch (I did two coats to start, maybe 10 minutes apart, no problems).

•Since these paints are alcohol based, I'm using 70% alcohol instead of water as thinner. 90% is recommended, but I only have 70% and it worked fine.

•Clean the brushes by swishing them around in your cup of alcohol, then rinse them in the sink with clean water. Maybe a 50/50 mix of water/alcohol would save you money, I see people saying they reuse the same cup for weeks before needing to dump it.

The white paint was thin, but because white is a pain in the asss I thinned it a little more. Glad I did, you can brush it on without problems as long as you do it quickly and don't drag over the same area too much. Let it dry completely before adding more coats. I definitely suggest you airbrush this.

Black is usually easy to work with and this Flat Black is too. I thinned it just with whatever dampness was on the brush and it worked great, it has a nice matte finish.

(As an aside, it's interesting to see that Formula P3 paints really do have excellent coverage compared to Testors, Tamiya, Citadel, etc.)

Price-wise I can't complain too much, I got the bigger 23ml bottles for $2.50 each, making them $1.50 cheaper than Testors while giving you more paint! (However, after shipping I ended up paying about $3 a bottle, meh.) The 10ml bottles are around $2, but you might as well just get the bigger size since you get over twice as much for only 50 cents more.

I got them online from Hobbylinc, but damn, they take a week to process your order and another week for it to get to your mailbox. If you don't want to wait, you might as well go to your local hobby shop and pick some up.